Bain's letter: truth constructed, not reported

The epistemology under Orin's register, and Bain's shrewdest stroke. Orin isn't a liar in the ordinary sense; he simply "regard[s] the truth as constructed instead of reported" — a stance he came by educationally, studying "at the feet of the most consummate mind-fucker" (JOI). Truth as a thing you make rather than a thing you find is the exact license irony needs: if nothing is simply the case, then sincerity is only ever another construction, and the man who constructs the most convincing sincerity wins. Bain adds the trap's second jaw: Orin thinks he's escaped his father's influence "through renunciation and hatred," but "Defining yourself in opposition to something is still being anaclitic on that thing" — hatred is still dependence. It's the same diagnosis the book makes of the ironist generally (cf. Day, never refuted, never free): opposition is not escape, and the cynic who has made truth optional is bonded to exactly what he thinks he's rejecting.